The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1887-10-07

Gne same llne." instead OF being startled
at a solitary instance of magnaninIity,
as in the case just mentioned it will
become a common thing. 1 know of
scores of great business houses that have
had their opportunity of vast accumula-
tion, and who ought to quit. But perhaps
for all the days of this generation the
struggle of small houses to keep alive un-
der the overshadowing pressure of great
houses will continue; therefore, taking
things as they are, you will be wise to
preserve your equilibrium, and your
honesty, and your faith, and throw over
all the counters, and shelves, and barrels,
and hogsheads, and cotton bales, and rice
casks, the measuring light of divine right.
And the Lord said unto me, Amos, what seest
thou? AndI said plumb line,
In the same way we need to measure
our theologies. All sorts of religions are
putting forth their pretensions. Some
have spiritualistic religion, and their
chief work is with ghosts, and others a
religion of political economy proposing to
put an end to human misery by a new
style of taxation, and there is a humani-
tartan religion that looks after the body
of men and let's the soul look after itself,
and there is legislative religion that
proposes to rectify all wrongs
by enactment of better laws,
and there is an aesthetic re-
would lift the heart out of its deformities,
and religions of all sorts, religions by the
pack, religions by the square foot, and re-
ligions by the ton-all of them devices of
the devil that would take the heart away
from the only religion that will ever effect
anything for the human race, and that is
the aight-up-and-down religion written
in the book, which begins with Genesis
and ends with Revelation, the religion of
l. /, IT. i ~
religion, the everlasting religion, which
says
Love God above all and your neighbor as
yourself
All religions but the one begin at the
wrong end, and in the wrong place. The
Bible religion demands that we first get
right with God. 1t begins at the top and
measures down, while the other religions
begin at the bottom and try to measure
up. They stand at the foot of the wall,
up to their knees in the mud of human
theory and speculation, and have plum
met and a string tied fast to it. And they
throw the plummet this way, and break a
head there, and throw the plum
met another way, and break a head
there, and then they throw it up, and it
comes down upon their own pate. Fools I
Why will you stand at the foot of the
wall measuring up when you ought to
stand at the top measuring down?
A few days ago 1 was in the country,
thirsty after a long walk. And I came
in, and my child was blowing soap bub-
bles, and they rolled out Of the cup, blue,
and gold, and green, and sparkling, and
beautiful, and orbicular, and in so small
a space I never saw more splendor con
centrated. But she blew once too often
and all the glory vanished into suds,
Then turned and took a glass of plain
water, and was refreshed And so far
as soul thirst is concerned, put against
all the glowing, glittering soap bubbles of
worldly reform and human speculation,
one drought from the fountain from
under the throne of God, clear as crystal.
Glory be to God for the religion that
drops from above, not coming up from be-
meath
And the Lord said unto me, Amos, what
seest thou? and said, A plumb line.
want you to notice this fact, that when
a man gives up the straight up-and down
religion in the Bible for any new-fangIed
religion it is generally to suit his sins.
You first hear of his change of religion,
and then you hear of some swindle he has
practiced in Colorado mining stock, tell
ing some one if he will put in $4,000 he
can take out 100000; or he has sacrificed
his chastity or plunged into irremediable
worldliness. His sins are so broad he has
70 blOd1eu lis Iell BlOus anu ne DeCOn8S
broad as temptation, as broad as the
SOULS darkness, as broad as hell. They
want a religion that will allow them to
keep their sins, and then at death say to
them: ''Well done, good and faithful
servant" and that tells them: CAN is
well, for there is no hell" What glo-
riOus heaven they hold before as Come,
let US go ia and see II. There is Herod
and all che babes he massacred. There
T. II. ~ III
Robespierre, the fiend of the French gull
lotine, and all the liars, thieves, house
burners, RarrOters, pockets and liber-
tines of all the centuries. They have all
got crowns, and thrones, and harps, and
scepters, and when they chant they sing:
Thanksgiving and honor and glory and
power to the broad religion that let US all
into Heaven without repentance and faith
in those disgraceful dogmas of ecclesiasti-
cal old-fogy ism"
My text gives me grand opportunity Of
saying a useful word to all young men
who arenow forming habits for a lifetime.
OF what use to a stonemason or a brick
layer is a plumb line? Why not build the
wall by the unaided eye and hand? Be.
cause they are insufficient, because if there
be a detection in the wall it can rot fur.
ther on be corrected. Because by the law
of gravitation a wall must be straight in
order TO be symmetrical and SAFE
young man is in danger of getting a
defect in his wall Of character that may
never be corrected. One of the best
friends 1 ever had died of deIirium tremens
at sixty years of age, though he had not
since twenty-one years--before which he
had been sipated-touched intoxicating
liquor until that particular carousal that
took him of. Not feeling we'll in street
on hot summer day, he stepped into a
drug store, just as you and / would have
done, and asked for a dose of something to
make h+m feel better. And there was al
cohOl in the dose, and that one drop
aroused the old appetite, and he entered
the first liquor store, and stayed there until
thoroughly under the power of rum. He
entered his home a raving maniac, his
wife and daughters fleeing from his pres
ence, until he was taken TO the City Hos
pital to die. The combustible material Of
early habit had lain quiet for nearly forty
years, and that one spark ignited the con-
f1agration.
Remember that the wall may be one
hundred feet high, and yet detection
one foot from the foundation affects the
entire structure. And if you live one hun
dred years and do right the last eighty
years, you may, nevertheless, do some
thing at twenty years of age that viii
damage all your earthly existence. All
you who have built houses for yourself or
others, am / not right in saying to these
young men, you can not build a wall 50
high as to be independent Of the character
of its foundation? A man before thirty
years Of age may commit enough sin to
last him a lifetime. A cat that has killed
one pigeon can not be cured. Keep it from
killing the first pigeon.
Now, John, or George, OF Charles, OF
William, or Alexander, or Henry, or what
ever be your Christian name or surname,
say here and now. fNo wild oa ts for me,
no cigars or cigarettes for me, no wine or
beer for me, no nasty stories for me,
no Sunday sprees for me, / am
going to start right and keep on